Maker schedule

A single meeting in the middle of the afternoon does more damage than its length suggests. It splits the afternoon into two pieces too short to start anything hard, and the maker loses the time before the meeting, while waiting for it, and after it, getting back into the work. A team that mixes both schedules without noticing loses its best hours without anyone deciding to lose them.

• Block long, meeting-free stretches in the calendar first, before other people's requests fill the week.
• Batch unavoidable meetings into one part of the day, such as the afternoon, so the rest stays whole.
• Mute non-urgent notifications during a maker block and check messages in batches.
• Protect at least one full block a day for anyone whose main job is building, not only senior people.
• Offer a short written message as the alternative to a meeting that is only an update.
• Owners who both manage and build can split days: management days with meetings, maker days without.

The idea comes from a 2009 essay by Paul Graham, "Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule". A manager's day is cut into one-hour slots, and each meeting is a self-contained task. A maker, such as a writer, designer or programmer, works in units of half a day or more. Building something complex means holding the whole problem in mind, and that picture takes a while to assemble.

A business owner who now builds with AI, writing automations, a landing page or a report, sits on both schedules in one week. That is where the clash shows up.

Booking a "quick chat" into the middle of someone's block. Protecting the blocks but then letting chat messages arrive all day. Assuming it only applies to engineers, when anyone writing a proposal or building a model needs the same space.